


Seafoam

by HerbertBest



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Action/Adventure, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Mermen, Sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2018-12-23 19:44:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11996682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerbertBest/pseuds/HerbertBest
Summary: Blue re-enters Dan's life, Arin becomes privy to Dan's secret, and the two of them find themselves on an adventure of a lifetime trying to keep Blue safe.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fallenandscatteredpetals](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallenandscatteredpetals/gifts).



> A sequel to my fic [Seaglass,](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11819778) and further adventures with Bell's merdan character Blue!
> 
> Thank you to Angel and skyhillian/Caitlin for beta!

“How much seaglass do you think we can fit in the bag?”

Arin frowned as Dan lugged the sack filled with seashells and driftwood he’d been gathering from the seashore. “Dude, we have sixty pounds of this stuff. I’m sure Suzy’s going to be just fine with like…half this amount.”

“It’s cool. I think we can get Holly to take the extra.” He had his eyes on the horizon again and was trying to keep the wind from whipping his hair back into his mouth.

It was windy there, and cloud-dotted. Arin had agreed to come with Dan down to the beach for only one reason – to help his wife. Otherwise he’d be protected from the elements, sheltered from the damp humidity. But instead they were in sweaters, and Dan was doing that weird thing he’d been doing ever since he fell overboard – staring out to the ocean, like he was looking for something. “Ready to go, man?”

“Sure,” Dan said. Tucking his long arms around his slim torso, they started walking together back to Arin’s car. But Dan took one look over his shoulder and spotted something bobbing along in the waves and broke into a full run.

“What the fuck?” Arin asked, as Dan broke into a full run. He rushed to catch up, and by then Dan was lifting something long, pale, white and blue out of the ocean. 

It was fighting him, whatever it was. Arin was just about to tell Dan to put it down and get back in the car before he pissed off Mother nature even more when both Dan and the creature trained their eyes on him. 

Two seconds after realizing that it resembled Dan exactly – well, minus huge glowing eyes. And pale skin. And when it snarled at him, very sharp teeth. 

Arin took one deep breath, extended his index finger and fainted dead away into the waves.

** 

He woke up to the sensation of Dan slapping his cheek. Starting back to wakefulness, he sat up and immediately regretted it 

“Hey, buddy,” Dan said, the voice of soothing reason. “Are we cool?”

“Oh, sure, Dan. We’re cool. Or we will be, when you tell me WHAT THE FUCK I’M LOOKING AT.” For he hadn’t imagined the creature – it sat there on a rock, snarling at him, his big teeth flashing brightly. He backed away and stared up at it, totally confused.

“Hey, don’t be mean to Blue,” Dan said. “We’re old friends.” He swung toward Blue, glanced at his tail. “You caught your tail on something again, didn’t you man?” The mermaid made some jabbering sounds. Dan nodded sympathetically. “Right. Okay – I guess I can take you back home with me, if you’re cool with it,” he said. The merman kept jabbering happily along.

“How is this possible?” Arin asked no one in particular. 

Dan shrugged. “I don’t know, Man. I’m as mystified as you.” He helped Arin up and they ended up walking to the car together, step by step.

** 

On the way back to Dan’s house, he explained everything that had happened on the island to Arin. Admittedly, most of it went right over Arin’s head. Possibly because he was still fuzzy-headed from passing out. But Dan was quite passionate about how Blue had saved his life while he was stranded out in the middle of the ocean. 

Arin peered into the back seat. They’d wrapped the merman in a wet sackcloth, which would hopefully keep him comfortable until they could get him into a pool. The creature hissed at him and Arin cowered back.

“Don’t be afraid! He’s a little wild but he’s a nice dude,” Dan said.

“Y’know how hard it is to trust you on this, bro.”

“Yeah, dude,” Dan said. “But it’s gonna be okay. I’m going to take a look at Blue’s tail. He’ll just chill out in my tub and we’ll try to keep him comfortable while he heals up.” Dan laughed. “Glad I got a shower put in.”

“You’re taking this way too well.” Then, in a stage whisper, Arin added, “you know the dude looks like you, right?”

Dan shrugged. “Sure. But not exactly. And I’m part Norse, so maybe…”

“Maybe what?"

“I don’t know. An ancestor jizzed in the ocean?”

Arin blinked at him. “Never, ever say that again.”

Blue made a confirming grumble from the back of the car.

*** 

“So why do you call him Blue?” Dan and Arin had settled the merman in Dan’s tub and were trying to use their phones to google up information about the care and keeping of aquatic mammals. 

“Well, I found him in the ocean – or he found me. So it all sounded logical at the time. I’ve never really had to call him anything out loud before, but once I saw him again it all fit together. I guess it just felt natural back on the island.”

“You’re starting to sound like Gilligan,” Arin said. Scrolling through his phone, he found something that seemed worthwhile and showed Dan. “It says there’s a special kind of waterproof glue we should use that’s antiseptic. But it’s going to be a couple of weeks even if we rush ship it.” 

“It’ll be worth it. As long as we can get him back in the ocean.” 

“So are we going on the premise that he’s like a whale or what?”

“I guess. Or a dolphin. From what I saw on the island he ears raw fish. I’ll just hit up the market tonight.”

By the time they returned the merman was sitting grumpily in the tub, staring into space. “Got your medicine bought,” he said. “You should be back in the ocean in a week, man.”

Blue looked the two men up and down and made a series of snapping, ticking sounds. Arin raised an eyebrow but said nothing about the noise.

Dan however started to scold him. “Don’t get all snippy at me!” he said. “I’m just trying to help you out. Do you wish I’d just left you on the beach or something?”

Blue gave him a contemplative glower, then sniffed, rolling over in the tub and stirring up a huge wave. Dan let out a sigh and sat back against the floor. “I’m going to have so much floor rot after this is over,” he complained.

“Just put down rubber pads,” Arin said. Still keeping his distance, of course.

He had a feeling that ‘distance’ was going to be the keyword of the entire situation. In fact the first question he asked Dan once they’d settled the merman in the tub and went about ordering the adhesive was, “I so can’t tell Suzy any of this, can I?”

“I wouldn’t,” Dan said. “It’s going to be weird enough just keeping it between the two of us.”

“Am I making this weird?” Arin asked.

“Well,” Dan pointed out, “you’re kind of doing the whole blown pupils ‘this is fine’ kind of face, for one.”

“Yeah, thank you for pointing that out. Super cool of you,” Arin grumbled.

“Which is understandable and cool, because you met a version of me who’s…all finned and stuff. And that’s really kinda inexplicable but hey, you did a good job with it, buddy.”

“You’re taking me out for sushi, light of my life,” Arin said, tucking his leather jacket closer to his chest. 

“Of course,” Dan said. “I’ll pay for the finest dragon rolls in town.”

“The super finest. Like that shit better be made out of gold.”

Dan pecked the top of Arin’s head. “Love you?”

He groaned. The limits of friendship only went so far, even when Dan was at his sweetest and kindest.

*** 

He arrived back at Dan’s house with some kelp and spare kale. He and Suzy had been trying out a new crash diet and neither of them had wholly taken to it, and thus he had an offering for Blue.

He heard laugher and splashing in the upstairs tub, followed by Dan’s voice, very carefully pronouncing words. Arin raised an eyebrow, but followed the sound to Dan’s bathroom.

“Ball. Baaalll. Can you say that too?”

The meman glowered at him thoughtfully. Then, to Arin’s surprise, the word came forth, gabled, hesitant, but it almost sounded like the word Dan had tried to get him to say.

“Oh my God, dude, you’re going full Trog with him!” Arin said.

“Hey, Ar,” Dan said. Then he frowned. “What’s a Trog?”

“It’s a movie – dude, don’t tell me you’ve never seen it – we need to spend a solid Monday just watching shit together. Anyway, I brought the dude something.” Arin held forth his bouquet of greens, which Dan took from his hands.

“Here’s your reward, buddy!”

The merman sniffed critically before taking several enormous bites. Dan let out a pleased sigh while Arin stood back and watched the tableau they made. 

“Is it weird?”

“What?” Dan asked.

“Knowing someone out there is like you but they’re not like you? Like, they have a whole life and a family that’s not yours?”

“He’s not my clone, Ar.”

“Well,” Arin coughed. “Still.” 

“Weird,” Dan admitted. “But it’s not like we share a lot, beyond having the same face. And a whole lot of loyalty to each other,” Dan added.

“Relatable,” Arin said. “Okay, so – what can I do to help out?”

“Keep an eye on my mail slot at work,” Dan said. “That’s where the sealant’s gong to be sent.”

“Why didn’t you have it sent here?”

“Because it’s too big to fit in my slot,” Dan said. “And I really want to get it on him as soon as I possibly can.”

“Right,” Arin said. “Okay, so – are you going to stay out of work?”

“Nah,” Dan said, “I’m going to use my home studio, work with some of the tracks Brian’s half-finished. Then I’m gonna try and see if I can Skype into Grumps.”

“Dude, is having a merperson double like, making you twice as organized?”

“It’s like having a goldfish, dude. Gotta stay on top of everything or it’ll all go upside down and then you’ll feel like shit and your whole bathroom will smell like fish guts.”

“Yeah,” Arin said. “Okay, let’s just…keep pressing on and doing what we do, then.”

“Gotcha,” Dan said. “Oh, and man – if you can get back to the market, he’s apparently super into squid. He tore the heads off of all of the salmon I bought him and then spat them right back out onto the floor. Super messy. I spent the whole afternoon cleaning that up.”

“So you know what you were talking about with the fish guts.”

“Yep.” Arin laughed. “What?” Dan said.

“I feel like I’m raising a baby.”

He stared at Arin for a moment, and looked back over his shoulder, where Blue was glaring back at them, intrinsically malevolent. “…That’s one hell of a weird baby,” Dan said.

“Don’t call him weird,” Arin said, watching Blue tear apart the kale with almost maniacal zeal. “He could like, eat our livers in our sleep.”

“He’d have to crawl to do that, man,” Dan said. “Besides, Blue’s with me, and he’s cool.”

“Right – well, I’m not gonna stick around and test your guess,” said Arin. “See you soon, man.”

“Right, see you soon,” Dan said. 

A few minutes later, when Arin checked the pocket of his coat for his car keys, he found a slimy leftover residue from the kelp – a parting gift from Blue’s opinionated hands.

*** 

When Dan and Arin next met, for lunch at Dan’s place, Dan’s phone was chock full of pictures of Blue. The merman’s prowess was growing – he could almost manage a full sentence. “See that? He’s smart enough to understand what a teakettle’s whistle means.” 

“Dan, I know you mean well, but isn’t it dangerous to have a bunch of pictures of him on your phone?”

Dan shrugged. “Who’s going to notice? I don’t live with anyone, and it’s not like someone’s going to tell. I’ve been out all morning and he’s been up there alone, as happy as a clam.”

A pointed look passed between them. “Hey,” Arin said defensively, “I’m not telling anybody!”

“Good,” Dan said. “So was the audio usable.”

“Yep. Y’know Barry’s a tech wizard who can make anything sound good,” Arin said.

“Good,” Dan said. “Hey, do you want anything? I left something upstairs,” he said. 

“Nah, I’ll wait down here.”

There was a long pause as Dan headed upstairs. Arin sat and fiddled with his phone until he heard a piercing scream.

Arin rushed up to find his friend standing in the doorway of his bathroom with fear in his face. The tub where Blue had been lying was empty. The whole room was soaked, from the ceiling to the floor.

And the bathroom window had been shattered.


	2. Chapter 2

*** 

“Okay, the key is not to panic…” Arin looked up to see Dan pacing back and forth frantically. “Dan. I said ‘don’t panic’.” 

“Oh, believe me, I’m goddamned trying not to,” he grumbled. His eyes climbed along the window ledge and then down the side of the house. It was clear from the pattern of water puddles and broken glass that someone had used a ladder to retrieve Blue from the tub. Dan was careful as he looked down into this garden and across the small lot upon which his house sat. “Fuck,” he muttered. “Arin. Someone dragged him away.”

Automatically, Arin squeezed Dan’s shoulder. “We’ll find him, man. Don’t worry.”

“I know,” Dan said. “Let’s go out and follow the drag marks. Then I’ll ask my neighbors if they saw anything. Maybe they have security cameras that could help?”

“You don’t have a security camera?”

Dan shrugged. “The last thing I want are more walls between myself and the rest of the world,” he said.

Arin’s expression was a hair envious, but he said absolutely nothing. Picking up his jacket, he pulled his own phone out of his pocket and made to comb the area around the bathroom window. There had to be clues, somewhere.

 

*** 

“Have you got anything?”

Dan came running to him and hour later, his phone clutched tight in his hand, sheer excitement in his eyes. 

“Nothing. The drag marks stop over by the window. I don’t know where they go after that,” said Arin. He eyeballed Dan curiously, and noticed how clearly overjoyed he was. He didn’t really need to bother with the rest of his question, but for the sake of wondering he said, “you?”

“Whelp,” Dan grinned, “I’ve got great news. The guy across the street, y’know, the one with the car dealership? He managed to get something on his camera.” He held out a little thumb drive. “I’m gonna plug this into the DVD player. I think I saw a license plate!”

Back inside, Dan played the footage for Arin – and indeed, a plate was visible – and so was Blue’s kidnapper, a very tall, very stocky man whose face was hidden. Dan tried to zoom closer via conventional means but had no luck.

“We’re going to have to get to the office to enhance it,” Dan said.

“But that’ll mean telling Barry,” Arin said. “Are you ready to tell Barry you have a weird fishy twin?”

Dan shrugged. “It’ll save Blue’s life. And it’s still not as embarrassing as telling everyone I sprained my own neck blowing myself.”

Arin couldn’t disagree with that. And Barry was a good guy – no way would he tell a single soul…

**** 

“I feel like you guys owe me double the hazard pay for this stuff,” Barry said. Sitting in his editing bay as the office sat otherwise empty, he chugged tea and kept clicking through various processes. Even with his animation experience, this kind of work was foreign to Arin, completely incomprehensible. 

“A-hah,” said Barry suddenly, poking the screen with his index finger. “Got it,” he said.

Dan squinted at the screen, typed the license plate in. “Now that we have it,” Arin said, “what are we going to do? There isn’t any way we can tell the police.”

“I do know a few people,” Barry said.

“And I do have a best friend who works in the police department,” Dan grinned. 

“…I’m not your best friend?” Arin asked. 

“Arin,” Dan said softly. Leadingly. 

“Whatever dude. Make your calls.”

Dan nodded his head. “Right,” he said quietly. “Whatever.”

Dan just watched him go – silent, utterly so. If Arin wanted to fight him, then he wasn’t going to give him a chance. He wouldn’t dig his heel in when Arin was being stubborn. He knew it wouldn’t get him where he needed to be.

*** 

“Dude,” Dan said, with an address tucked in his hand thanks to his cop friend, “can you just like – tell me why you’re so pissed off? ‘Cause you’re super pissed. It’s like, radiating off of you in waves.”

“I’m not mad at you,” Arin said. They were sitting In Dan’s truck, and the world was speeding by at an alarming pace. 

“You’re mad,” Dan frowned. “Look, you don’t understand, man. Living on that island changed me. I had to do things I never thought I’d have to do. I had to learn how to depend on two people – myself and Blue. So if I seem a little intense or weird about that – and that feels weird – all I can say Is that you weren’t there. You didn’t see it and you didn’t have to live through it.”

“Yeah, okay,” Arin said. But when the car pulled to a stop in front of a nondescript white house in a small cul de sac, Arin was glowering. 

It was Dan’s sharp eyes who noticed the wet, deep tracks left behind on the ground by someone – or something – that had been dragged along at an alarming rate behind something that had little care, little more than sharp haste. They crept up the drive, staying low and away from the large picture windows lining the front of the house.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Arin whispered. “I don’t wanna bust some little old lady for stealing your merman friend…wow, I don’t fuckin’ believe I just said that.”

“It’s got to be the right place. Look at the drag marks!” He patted the cab of the flatbed truck idling in front of them. “See? Wet. Soaking wet.” Dan grabbed Arin’s shoulder. His hand was firm upon him. “Someone’s in the house,” he whispered. 

“What the fuck are you…” Arin began, but Dan was dragging him down into the gravel, past the bushes, and cupping his ear he leaned against the truck. Arin spat out little bits of sumac as he tried to crane his neck and hear. Pressing his head to the thin siding outside of the house, he could pick out snippets of words. 

“Telling you…someone’s gonna wanna buy him. There’s gotta be an idiot who wants a nasty … mermaid in his life ….. Hey!! Don’t bite me!” 

“I’ll call the fair one more time. They’ve gotta have something. The dumbass who owned him wasn’t even smart enough…bar up his windows.” Arin saw Dan’s features droop, and made a sympathetic sound, cupping a hand over his shoulder. Dan reached for his hand, squeezed it back, closed his eyes tightly and made a little sound of low, muffled distress. 

“Going into the other room. Keep it company, eh?” Then there was silence, immediately followed by a loud television, of a game show, muffling all of Blue’s noises, his angry rabblings.

Shuffing sounds. Whatever the thieves were saying, they didn’t want to be heard. Suddenly Dan was pulling Arin close, “We have to get in there!”

“How? Dan, you’re a noodle and I don’t know how to fight! We’re both going to get our asses crushed!”

“I don’t care! Blue didn’t ask to be born, man- he didn’t ask for these people to come into his life and try to turn him into a freak.”

“Wow,” Arin said. “I just got why this is so important to you.”

Dan raised an eyebrow, but he said nothing. “Go find something to hit the guy with. I’m going to see if we can get the window open.” His long fingers and large thumb crept up alongside the house and wormed their way into the crack between the window and sill. Carefully, very carefully, he began to jimmy it upward.

“How did you learn to do that?” Arin asked.

“I lived in Philly and New York, man,” he said. As if the wildness had been boiled out of him by his moneyed existence – as if he needed this vital bit of excitement to keep him from decomposing.

Arin held his breath, listening to the window gently rattle. His hands groped around in the dirt and rocks and found a thick branch fallen from the oak tree looming over their heads. Inside the television blared on, covering their crime up. 

When Dan had the window open, he threw his skinny body through it, leaving Arin to squeeze in behind in his wake. The robber in the living room was a kid – college aged, no more than eighteen or more – yelled. And Dan – who had never in his life even thrown a punch – threw himself at the man, beating him with his fists before he could defend himself.

The kid was on the ground, yelling, protecting his face, and Arin yelled something too – fully incoherent but fully aware that protecting Dan right now was a do-or-die prospect. A door in the hallway flung itself open and he and the guy locked gazes, charging in tandem and throwing themselves into a brawling, violent, mess of fistfighting flesh.

He took a punch to the jaw and saw stars before, suddenly, the rain of blows stopped with a grunt. HE looked up to see Dan’s bruised face, a look of disgust on his features. To Arin’s left lay one of the robbers, unconscious – above him, weighing him down, the other robber had been stricken down by Dan. Arin realized how important the entire Blue situation was to Dan when he saw that anger in his face, that disgust. It was actually frightening. He’d never seen that expression before in his life.

Dan tossed away the TV tray he’d used to strike the heavy blow – then, together, they rolled the guy off of Arin’s prone body.

“Let’s tie him up,” Arin said, standing, favoring his jaw and sore back.

“You should’ve said something badass,” Dan said, and made to drag the guy he’d been fighting closer. “Like ‘let’s take out the trash’.”

“Gee Dan, sorry I don’t feel like James Bond right now,” he said, and rummaged around for something to bind their hands with. He came back with a jumprope. 

“But you were so badass! It was totally rad to watch you kick that dude’s butt.”

“Whatever dude, I’m just glad I’m still alive,” Arin muttered. Dan shrugged, helped him tie both men up, then sat back and admired his handiwork. 

“Aww. I’m glad you’re alive too.” Dan smiled into his fist; Arin could hear the querulous sounds Blue was making on the other side of the wall. If there was anything heavy nearby, he’d probably be able to crush them all by himself. These robbers didn’t seem to be too bright. The fact that they couldn’t seem to interest anyone in the fact that they’d found a freaking merman said it all. Now they’d just have to finish rescuing their merfriend from the mess they’d made. He shoved one of the dudes in the shoulder. “And that’s why you don’t go fuckin’ with the Grumps.” He said to Arin, “let’s take their phones and like, trash them. I don’t want to those fair people trying to track Blue. Bad enough I’m going to have to move because of them.” 

A few minutes later, he and Arin stood over two destroyed phones, and he and Dan had flushed the memory cards down the pipes and into the sewer. He was sure Biff and Sporto would miss their drug connections, but if they were stoners of any stripe, they should be able to find money in a much more legal way. Dan dusted his hands and surveyed the scene. “ Whelp,” he said, “that’s done.”

“I thought you hate that word,” Arin muttered.

“I only hate it when someone else says it,” Dan proclaimed. “Now the only question I have left is,” Dan said, “where’s Blue?”

The answer came in a shattering sound coming from the room the robbers had occupied. There, sitting scrunched in a medium-sized fish tank on a dresser drawer sat Blu, a shattered vase beside him on the floor, his expression hopelessly and fully indignant.

 

***

“Whelp. I guess we figured out what your limit is.”

Dan, pouring bottles of water over Blue’s thrashing, almost steamingly-hot head, looked back into Arin’s face. “First of all, stop saying ‘whelp’. Second of all, what’s my limit?”

“Yeah, what it takes to make you say ‘fuck it, I’m gonna punch the shit out of this dude.’” He sarcastically saluted. “Don’t touch your mermaid friend, got it.” Dan scoffed. “What?” Arin asked. “You’re like, mister peaceful. You literally wouldn’t hurt a fly, and you just totally beat up a guy to save your best friend.”

“Don’t worry, big cat. I’d do it for you if someone was planning on selling you to the circus for spare parts.” Arin went quiet. “Hey,” Dan said, “You don’t need to be jealous, dude. Just…realize that I’m only trying to do the right thing and keep you and Blue from getting hurt.”

“I can take care of myself,” Arin said. “And so can Blue – have you seen his teeth?”

“Maybe,” Dan sulked. Arin just kept driving on, until they finally reached the sandy white beach where they’d first found Blue.

The merman instantly perked up when he saw the ocean, chattering. “I think he’s ready to go, dude,” Arin said, stopping the car, pulling into park. 

“But I don’t think he’ll survive.” Dan was staring into Blue’s face, dripping with seawater, the pallid mirror of his fears and nightmares surfacing to glare at him as if he’d become the enemy in the flesh.

“Let’s just walk with him,” Arin said, unbuckling his safety belt, and then opening the back door. Dan was still hunched over the angry merman, whose scaly skin seemed half-dried out to Arin’s worried eyes.

He was feisty, though, and snapped at Dan when he hauled him out of the car. Side-by-side, Dan and Arin walked, the front of Dan’s shirt soaked by the wet cloth he’d wrapped Blue in.

Arin directed them to a decent patch of water, deep enough but also shallow enough to allow them both to see to them bottom. It was on a rockface that required them both to climb upward, to be careful to avoid slipping. Looking down into the bright blue water, Arin asked, “do you think we can drop Blue into the drink over here? Should we try to find someplace warmer?”

“Don’t you know more about this stuff?” Dan said. “I didn’t have anything fishy in my life until I…”

“Don’t finish that sentence, and you know I grew up around horses,” Arin said. “You know way more about him than me, man – do you think he’ll be able to make it as-is?”

“His tail seems to be healed,” Dan said, gently prodding at the closed wound. It was nothing but a long white line now. The marman slapped him with the flat edge of that samesaid tail. “And he seems feisty enough. Think the water’s warm enough?”

“It was warm enough for him to be in it in the first place,” Arin said. “C’mon, Dan, time to say goodbye.”

Dan and Blue eyeballed each other – Dan’s expression was, naturally, far more sentimental than the merman’s angry look. “I’ll miss you, buddy. Thanks for staying with me, letting me take care of you for a few weeks. I won’t ever forget it, y’know that?” He shook his head. “I feel like I’m throwing a baby into a lion’s den.”

Blue just snarled in return. The corner of Dan’s mouth ticked upward, but he didn’t make any sort of protestation when Blue began to chatter wildly.

“Dan, man….look at him. He’s a killing machine. He’ll be okay…” Arin trailed off and tugged at Dan’s sleeve. “Woah,” he said. And when Dan followed Arin’s line of sight his own eyes went wide.

All around the cliff, a series of pale bodies, blue-gilled, with staring eyes, began to bob to the surface. Arin stared in amazement as they began to make a chain, linking arms, singing a soft, keening, high-pitched tune. Blue sang it back, his face a perfect reflection of excitement.

Dan’s reaction was typically over-emotional. “Aww, they came back.”

“Yeah, isn’t that…wait, back?!” Arin asked Dan.

“Sure! These guys helped me out when I was in trouble,” he said. “Hey guys!” he shouted. The merpeople only had their eyes on Blue, paying Dan no heed. “Thanks for making sure I didn’t drown! Super cool of you!”

Then, at the very edge of the group, another merperson surfaced. His eyes were bright red, his hair was long and straight and brown – and he had a beard. And a series of chins, barely hidden by that beard. He chattered excitedly at Blue and Blue chattered right back.

“Why the fuck does that thing look like me?” Arin hissed in Dan’s ear.

“Shh. Don’t question the majesty,” he ordered. Then, as Blue wriggled, he moved closer to the edge of the cliff. “There you go, buddy. Go have a good life, ok?” the merman let out a sound of squeaky joy as he dived into the center of his people’s embrace, surfacing to cackle and chatter with them. He and the bechinned merman met up and began to gossip back and forth (Arin could only assume they were somehow gossiping), swimming away, into the safe, warm womb of the sea.

They were gone for less than fifteen minutes when Arin turned to Dan. “A merman saved your life?”

“No, a bunch of them did,” Dan said. He gave one last happy look to his friend’s retreating tail before wrapping his arm around Arin’s shoulder. Together, they climbed off the rocks. Arin listened to Dan chatter, feeling the warmth of the moment enrobe him. They would be bound together forever by this secret. A secret Arin wouldn’t mind carrying with him for the rest of his days.

That was what friends did. Helped you gather the rocks – and the seaglass – of life.

**Author's Note:**

> Like what you see? There's a lot more at my [Tumblr!](http://devilgate-drive.tumblr.com)


End file.
